In a tire building process, a multiplicity of rubber components made of unvulcanized rubber compositions are used to produce uncured or green tires. Extrusion is an economical and widely used method for forming unvulcanized extruded components such as green tread strips, green sidewall strips and green stiffener strips. Therefore, booking operations in an extrusion process are labor intensive because of the great number of extruded rubber components.
An automatic apparatus for booking an elastomer article has been proposed as illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. As used in this description a typical elastomer article is a rubber component for a tire. It is understood that the system is not limited to such articles. In Figure. 1, a rubber article 1 is carried with a main conveyor 2. When the rubber component reaches a rest position on the main conveyor 2, a side conveyor 3 automatically ascends swiftly over the main conveyor 2 and carries the rubber article 1 to waiting conveyors 4 positioned on either side of the main conveyor. In this apparatus, the said conveyor 3 has two functions: (a) stopping the rubber article 1 on the main conveyor 2 and (b) carrying the rubber article to the transfer conveyor 4. Thereafter, a vacuum 5 for latching on a rubber article holds the rubber article 1 and together with means 6 transfers the rubber article 1 with the vacuum 5 to a flat car 7.
FIG. 2 illustrates, in a detailed schematic, the main conveyor 2, the side conveyor 3 and the transfer conveyor 4. Since this apparatus needs a transfer conveyor, it requires not only a large working area but also high constructions costs. Therefore, such a system has not achieved wide acceptance. A need exists for a booking system that does not require the extensive equipment and space requirements of prior art devices.